Tie Up In One Of The Oldest Towns In New England

Tie Up In One Of The Oldest Towns In New England

- Capt. Daniel S. Parrott

Castine, Maine, is picturesque in a way that leaves words like “quaint” and “charming” sitting in the corner with empty dance cards. The only reason most Americans have never heard of the place is the reflexive Anglo orientation of U.S. history.

Named for a French baron, Castine was established as a trading post in 1613, seven years before the Pilgrims waded ashore at what became Plymouth, Massachusetts. Castine was strategically situated on the Bagaduce River, just off Penobscot Bay. It was soon a nexus of international struggle that spanned two centuries and five nations, including the indigenous Wabanaki.

In 1628 the French lost Castine to the British, but they got it back, only to lose it to the British again. They got it back again, only to lose it to the Dutch. I know — the Dutch? The French got it back yet again but then lost it to the British again. We’re not even out of the 1600s.

In 1776 Castine became American. The place was bitterly contested in the Revolution when an American expeditionary force attempted to take it from an occupying British garrison. The expedition was a lopsided fiasco on a scale that history books place on par with Pearl Harbor. In a court-martial, Paul Revere beat the rap on charges of cowardice, but no one came out looking good. The British reoccupied Castine in 1814, and when they pulled up stakes the next year, they were the last troops to vacate American soil.

Why such strife? There was a time when furs, fish and timber sent nations to war. Castine had it all.